Fire Suppression

The Central County Fire Department (CCFD) was formed when the City of Burlingame and Town of Hillsborough decided to merge their fire departments. Officially, the department came into being on April 20, 2004. On December 29 2014, CCFD officially began fire services for the City of Millbrae.

Currently, the department operates 6 Engine Companies and 1 Truck Company out of 6 fire stations with 2 stations in each city. Fire Station 36 on Rollins Road in Burlingame was closed due to budget reductions in August 2010 and remains closed; the result was one less Engine Company staffed with 3 personnel available to provide services. Our daily staffing consists of seven captains, seven firefighter/paramedics, 8 firefighters and one battalion chief on duty to provide fire, EMS and rescue services to our approximately 70,000 residents and visitors to our two cities. Each company is an Advanced Life Support (ALS) first response unit as part of the San Mateo County Pre-Hospital Joint Powers Agreement that allows cities in San Mateo County to provide closest-unit ALS response across city boundaries.

In Fiscal Year 2011-12 we responded to 6,544 calls for service with the major type breakdown by volume is as follows: EMS, Calls for service, False Alarms ,Hazardous Conditions, Fire, Others

In 2011, the CCFD became the first fire department in San Mateo County to successfully complete the State of California Emergency Management Agency (CalEMA) audit that resulted in our being the county’s first Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) type 1, Heavy Rescue response unit. USAR 133 is cross-staffed at Fire Station 33.

The CCFD also provides fire prevention, public education and emergency preparedness through our Fire Prevention Division. Administrative and Prevention services are provided out of our headquarters on Rollins Road.

Sharing of services has been part of the department’s operational plan since the 1990’s when we started offering fire mechanic services to neighboring departments in the county. That philosophy has grown to today’s shared training division with 5 other departments, mechanic services with 3 other departments, and EMS supervision with 5 other departments.

As part of our on-going efforts to reduce costs while maintaining a high level of service to our communities we are currently taking this one step further with the consolidation of our administration with the San Bruno Fire Department.

The Central County Fire Department is actively involved at the county, state and federal level in all aspects of fire service delivery. From USAR to Fire Prevention to Training our personnel stay connected and contribute to code development, training innovations and specialized operations tactics.

Personnel are encouraged to participate on any of our standing committees established to address areas such as individual wellness, department website, policy and standards development, community involvement, shared services, or department advisement. Changing with the economic demands, technology and community development, and our organization remains a dynamic fire department dedicated to serving our communities and visitors to our area.